Why furniture looks different at home: light, leather and fabric variation, and the display sofa you sat in

Showroom light and living-room light: what colour temperature does to a sofa

Light has a colour, and most bulb packages print it as a number in kelvins (K). Natural Resources Canada labels 3,000 K as warm, giving "a yellowish light", and suggests it for living rooms and bedrooms. It labels 4,000 K as cool, saying it "produces a bluish colour", which suits kitchens and garages.

A yellowish bulb adds yellow to whatever it lands on, and a bluish one adds blue. So the same grey or beige can read warmer or cooler at home than it did in a store. The same guide puts an old incandescent bulb at about 3,000 K, the warm end.

The display sofa is one cover in one size

A display piece shows a style, not your order. The Island Living Bamfield sofa on display at our Duncan store is 85 inches long, in a cover called Paso Spice, on espresso legs. Island Living also makes Bamfield as a loveseat, chair, chair and a half, sofa beds and sectional pieces.

Island Living's FAQ says "almost all of Island Living' upholstery products are available in any fabric". It adds: "We carry over 400 different fabric styles and colours in stock". One sofa on display stands in for hundreds of possible covers.

The Decor-Rest 3855 on display at our Duncan store is the 79 inch length in leather, at $4,249.00 before applicable taxes. The same style is made at 86 and 94 inches. Its fabric twin is the Decor-Rest 2855, listed at $1,549.00 before applicable taxes.

The La-Z-Boy Cade reclining sofa is on display as well, and its listing offers seven covers. Only one of them can be on the sofa in the store. The rest are samples until someone orders one.

"What colours does it come in?" is one of the questions we hear most, and the answer is nearly always more than the one in front of you. Merit lists 147 sofas, and 116 of them can be ordered through Duncan. Our sofa listings give the covers and dimensions for each one.

Leather and fabric variation, in the makers' own words

Leather is skin, and the makers say so plainly. Decor-Rest, which builds in Woodbridge, Ontario, writes about sofas this way.

"It may take 3 to 4 hides to make a sofa therefore the dye lot may not match perfectly, that is the beauty of leather!"

Decor-Rest also notes that "color variations and shading varies from hide to hide and even within one hide's coloring". A leather sofa on display was cut from its own hides. Yours will be cut from others.

La-Z-Boy says of its full aniline leathers: "Aniline dye enhances natural markings such as wrinkles, scars and brands in each hide". It calls the colour variations that follow "hallmarks of quality".

Island Living sorts its leathers into two kinds, and the kind decides how much one piece can differ from the next.

Fabric varies less from one sofa to the next, but sun changes it over time. Island Living says: "Sunlight will fade fabric faster than fabric not exposed to direct sunlight". La-Z-Boy says leather resists fading, yet "prolonged direct exposure to the sun will cause any material to fade". A sofa under a big south window will drift away from its sample over the years.

Why is my new sofa firmer than the floor model?

Island Living answers this one directly in its FAQ. "As most stores keep their floor models for several months, the cushions soften with handling and testing". Then: "With time and usage, the cushions on your furniture will soften up as well".

Its tip for speeding that up is to set the cushions on the floor and bounce on them with your knees, to break the foam in.

The foam on the order matters as much as the months of sitting. The 3855 listing gives a 1.9 lb standard seat foam with an option of firm. The Decor-Rest 2795 lists a 2 lb super soft core, with standard foam as the option. A display cushion that has softened for months tells you less than the foam named on the order.

Size and scale: a sofa among sofas against a sofa at your wall

A showroom sofa sits with open floor around it and other big pieces nearby, so it reads smaller than it is. At home it fills one wall beside your own chairs and tables. Painter's tape on the floor at the listed width and depth shows the footprint better than memory does.

Every listing carries the width, depth and height, and our guide to standard sofa sizes and seat depths explains which number matters for which room. For sectionals, we draw how the piece faces and its measurements right on the invoice, then ask people to measure again at home.

Can you buy floor models at furniture stores, and how much are they discounted?

Some furniture stores sell their floor models, often from a sale section. At Merit, the pieces at our Duncan store are display models, there so people can see and touch them before ordering. Most orders are custom and made fresh for the buyer.

I won't give a discount figure here. There is no standard percentage I can point to, and whether a particular display piece can be bought, and on what terms, is a question for the Duncan store.

Anyone weighing a floor model at any store can ask three things. What wear does it have? Does the maker's warranty still apply, and what each maker's warranty covers on a piece like it? Is the sale final? The piece also comes only in the cover it wears, which has only been seen under store light.

Which makers build the best quality furniture in Canada?

I can't name one best maker in the country. Of the makers Merit carries, what I can say is that Canadian brands like Island Living and Decor-Rest hold up over 10 years, in our experience. Decor-Rest builds in Canada, and so does the made-to-order side of Island Living.

Decor-Rest describes "a 250,000 sq. ft. base of operations in Woodbridge, Ontario," and a team of more than 350 craftspeople and administrators. Island Living builds its made-to-order line in Burnaby. The Island Living Ladysmith, for one, is hand built in Burnaby, BC, in the fabric the buyer picks.

Island Living also sells an in-stock range made overseas, so the Canadian Made tag on each listing is the thing to check. Imported furniture has its place too. A $1,000 sofa is worth $1,000, and a $2,000 sofa is worth $2,000. Our page on which Canadian sofa makers build what lines the two makers up.

Checking a cover sample before a custom order

1. Ask about taking it home. Ask whether a fabric or leather sample can leave the store for a night.
2. Look twice. Once in morning daylight with the blinds open, once at night with the lamps on.
3. Read the bulbs. Check the kelvin number on the bulbs in that room against the warm and cool ranges above.
4. Put it in place. Lay the sample where the sofa will sit, next to the floor, the walls and the rug.
5. Ask about the leather. Natural or protected, since that decides how far the sofa can stray from the sample.